As you can see from the clips, George Liquor's personality and humor is a combination of classic situation comedies and cartoon humor at the same time. The personalities are grounded in reality but very exagerrated. You can identify with the personalities and situations and motivations, yet impossible cartoon stuff can happen too.

Dog Show

My influences are not just cartoons but old TV comedies like The Honeymooners, All In The Family, Get Smart and The Bevery Hillibillies. These were all really strong character comedies. The writing was all about WHO the characters were and how they played off each other in certain situations. This genre doesn't exist much anymore. Now sitcoms seem to be filled with whole families of wisecrackers and nobody having particularly defined personalities.

I think these are drawn by Chris Reccardi.

Ren and Stimpy was also a combination of personality sitcom humor with outlandish cartoon jokes.

This is from the first ever online cartoon series, "The Goddamn George Liquor Show)drawings by Aaron Springer

The George Liquor Program is partly in the genre of The Simpsons but is a lot freer creatively because I can use impossible humor and acting to sell the personalities. I am allowed to move their facial muscles which helps.

Live actors generally can do a lot more specific and detailed acting than cartoons can, so I've never understood why people would try to do straight sitcoms in cartoon form, without using the tools that cartoon drawing has that live action can't do.

The George Liquor Program combines the advantages of both mediums without imposing any arbitrary limitations.

47 comments:

I agree with Ryan. Superb acting from George in "Man's Best Friend." To be honest, I'm not very fond of the George Liquor personna, but he does have some funny moments: "You get. . . ANOTHER 20 dollars!"

So sad to hear about Joseph Barbera, but just looking over his work it's amazing to see that he never retired. Truly a trooper-- that's inspirational. Not just anyone can leave a legacy like he did. He is remembered not only by his work, but by the people he will continue to make impressions on.

I agree with Ryan. Superb acting from George in "Man's Best Friend." To be honest, I'm not very fond of the George Liquor personna, but he does have some funny moments: "You get. . . ANOTHER 20 dollars!"

So sad to hear about Joseph Barbera, but just looking over his work it's amazing to see that he never retired. Truly a trooper-- that's inspirational. Not just anyone can leave a legacy like he did. He is remembered not only by his work, but by the people he will continue to make impressions on.

I agree with Ryan. Superb acting from George in "Man's Best Friend." To be honest, I'm not very fond of the George Liquor personna, but he does have some funny moments: "You get. . . ANOTHER 20 dollars!"

So sad to hear about Joseph Barbera, but just looking over his work it's amazing to see that he never retired. Truly a trooper-- that's inspirational. Not just anyone can leave a legacy like he did. He is remembered not only by his work, but by the people he will continue to make impressions on.

We didn't get 'Man's Best Friend' on our Ren and Stimpy season 1 and 2 box set. We also didn't get any commentaries. Same box design and everything, just minus the the banned episode and commentaries. NO idea why.

Maybe someone can explain why they chose to water the DVDs down for Australia? I'd love to see that episode on DVD.

I'm sad to find out one of my childhood inspirations, Joe Barbera has passed away. I will write a post soon to share some memories I have of Joe.

When you do, it would be a good idea to post links to other blogs that have a memorial for Joe. I have one on my blog for one. James Daniels also has one as well as the Animator's Guild. Curiously, the Blackwing Diaries blog has yet to post nything about him. What's Jenny's deal about that?

HOLY SHIT, I've never seen those two clips before from Man's Best Friend and Dog Show but they were INCREDIBLE, especially the one from Man's Best friend. George's facial expression, gestures, and the ways he shook his butt were absolutely HILARIOUS, and Ren's voice was HILARIOUS. H-wat the hell did he mean by the goldfish?

I wanna get the Season DVD's~ Here's hoping my secret santa comes through, if not, my next paycheck is going to be all for Spumco!!

>What's Jenny's deal about that?

Calm down, David. Maybe she's getting to it.

Rodrigo: Your Eddie is pretty good, but the drawing of Juan Kricfalusi looks off to me.

Is that George Liquor title card based off the Disney ones from the 40s?

Jorge: You got to get the first two seasons of R&S. "Mans Best Friend" is the shit.. George had to make room for R&S, so he emptied out the goldfish bowl. The goldfish flopped outside and drove off in the car. The best part though, is the "oar" scene. The best acting in a cartoon besides "Sven Hoek"

What is it about cels that make old animation look the way it does? Is it the paints they used? The linework? I have no idea why, but the old Ren and Stimpy George is just so much warmer than the new Flash Georges.

Cel animation has such an endearing look, that I don't know why digital animators don't try harder to emulate it. Is it impossible to do? Or does old the cel animation really look bad comparatively, and I'm just being nostalgic?

>>I have no idea why, but the old Ren and Stimpy George is just so much warmer than the new Flash Georges.<<

Man's Best Friend wasn't done on cels. It was colored on the computer.

The Ren and Stimpy episodes are much higher budgets and had fuller animation. Plus, the backgrounds are hand painted and rendered.

The Flash cartoons were done using primitive technology at a low frame rate, and the sound in Flash doesn't totally synch when played on a computer. We couldn't use painted backkgrounds because they take too long to download.

Man's Best Friend has some of my fave intense George Liquor animation. The Goddam George Liquor Program has some immensely funny George drawings. Despite the so called crudeness of early Flash animation, the funny still shines through.

Hey John. There is one still in MBF that shows George dressed in military gear right before he makes Ren do ass pushups.. anyway it seems inconsistant with the rest of the other stills. It looks like Photoshop airbrush. Was this an expiramentation with color?

I always wondered if George Liquor's personality was a bit of a spoof on George C Scott. Especially with the military dress shot from MBF which looked a little Patton inspired. How come the character never made the jump to the APC episodes, that would've been amazing!

I'm interested in the way you create characters, since they're all so idiosyncratic and strange. I know that Ren was based on a combination of a photo and Peter Lorre's voice; what about George Liquor - was he someone you drew a lot and then started to develop his personality to go with the drawings? Or did the idea of the character exist before drawings? Did you have Mike Pataki's voice acting in mind from the start, or did you audition him?

Also, with funny and bizarre characters like Wally Man or He-Hog, do you try to develop their characteristics by putting them in stories, or do you try and get some ideas of their characteristics first (i.e. He-Hog's butt marmalade, Wally Man's nature shows) and write stories around them? Or both?

Hey John,just dropping by to tell you- i was just checking out King Kong Extended Edition DVD Disc 3, and on the "1996 King Kong Concept Art Video Gallery" there's a rendering of an aligator with "Happy happy..." written under it. Hahahha :D Joy joy!

I think one of the things that makes George so great is that he's already funny to look at. Even before he says anything you cant help but love his design. This short little wrinkly man with rosy cheeks, a buzzcut, and MASSIVE EYES that remind me of fish.Whats aaron springer doing now anyway? I heard Korgoth got canned. :[

I think a better name is 'The Goddam George Liquor Program.' A man like Liquor would call a tv show a 'program' and not a 'show.' Of course, the 'goddam' needs to be in the title. 'Program' is very funny. In fact, a character quirk such as not relying on or understanding modern conveniences would be very funny. HE should call a cd player a 'phonograph' and stuff like that.

Man's Best Friend is one of the best Ren and Stimpy episodes IMHO, though I'm a sucker for Stimpy's Invention, Son Of Stimpy and Royal Canadian Kiltsmen. That particular scene must be the best moment in the episode too.

Actually Jorge, The inspiration for the name "George Liquor" came from a sign above a convenience store in the Los Angeles area.John K has explained on other occasions that he drove past the sign once and found the juxtaposition of the two words funny. There was never any intent to suggest anything sexual, although Nick executives have have dirty minds and have muted George's last name whenever his cartoons are broadcast.

man i love george liquor! i got to see man's best friend a long time ago in chicago, at the Chicago underground film festival... Chris Gore from Film Threat magazine came and showed it on video tape (i think it was the summer after nickelodeon killed the greatest cartoon series ever by canning john). it was so awesome i went up afterwards and he agreed to make me a copy if i sent him a video tape and postage... i was so psyched when i read in some entertainment magazine that fox was going to make "the goddam george liquor show"... alas... anyways George Liquor rules, and i applaud john for making his every apperance a true masterpiece of character cartooning! i just wish there was more.. of course..

and to disagree with ryan g., i think the best drawings of Ren and Stimpy are definitely in the Adult Party toons.. my favorite is "Ren's Pregnant", although Firedogs 2 is growing on me... and to think i criticised it on this blog about a year ago.. did you do a lot of editing for the dvd version of firedogs 2?

George Liquor is so funny. I don't get why Nick didn't like him... they sure don't know what the hell cartoons are. (P.S. I think I can do a mean Ren impression... I might be putting some on my website.)

I just drew George Liquor for the first time the other day. And boy, was he tricky to draw! He's full of so many complex shapes and he's a really original, well-constructed character. I got used to drawing him afterwards, but, man! He was quite a challenge!